The Eric Metaxas Show - Ward Connerly

Episode Date: October 10, 2022

Ward Connerly has successfully eliminated race-based affirmative action in nine states -- and talks about the fight ahead for equal justice which isn't based on skin color.

Folks, welcome to the Eric Mataxis show, sponsored by Legacy Precious Metals. There's never been a better time to invest in precious metals. Visit legacy p.m.investments.com. That's legacy p.m. Investments.com. A Texas show with your host, Eric Mettaxas. Hey, you crazy kids. And you too, Albin. Thank you. Today is Thursday. Yes, it is. And it's hard for me to believe it's Thursday because when you travel, I've been traveling so much.

everything gets all turned upside down. Yeah. And it feels like Tuesday maybe. In any event, I have it on good authority that it's Thursday. Yes. So we've got a couple of exciting things to announce. First of all, in hour two, every Thursday, we do ask metaxus. And you ask me questions.

People write in all these questions. We pick whatever we can squeeze in. but this time somebody wrote in a question for me to ask you about what you love about doing this job and what you hate about doing this job. And Alvin, I want you to be honest. I want you, look, you could lose your job for being honest, but I want you to be honest.

Yes, I will be. So that's an hour two in the beginning of hour two. A rare moment of sincerity. Whatever it is. Whatever it is, okay. I'm going to do it. If you lose a job, we'll lose a job. But you just be honest.

They come, they go. So we should also say that in our first hour today, which is in a couple of minutes, we're talking to somebody. Some of you know who this is, but I bet most of you don't. He's kind of a legend. His name is Ward Connerly. He is a black American who has been unbelievably successful in fighting against affirmative action in California and around the country. because he believes affirmative action is bad. Now, this was in the 90s.

And he, the man is just a legend, really. I mean, he's been successful and very sweet person. So we're going to be talking to him to get his story of how he came to be who he is in just in a couple of minutes. I should also say today is bring your Bible to school. day. Now, I never understand that, because why not bring your Bible to school every day and beat people over the head with it? Go on. Go on. No, but you know something, what's interesting, I've been talking about this lot about because people know I've been talking about my book, Letter to the American Church. What I've been saying in a lot of the sermons that I'm preaching and a lot of talks that I'm giving is that people always say it's important for you to read your Bible, right? It's important for you to study your Bible. And I think, yeah, but it's much more important. for you to live out what you read in the Bible. In other words, there's something grotesque about having your head filled with Bible knowledge

if you don't live it. And Jesus condemns the Pharisees and the other religious leaders. They knew the Bible backward and forward. You know, they brought their Bible to school every second. And they didn't live it. So I just want to make really clear, like we remember when Trump had that photo op.

and he lifted up the Bible. I had no problem with that at all. But there are some people who think, like, oh, it's just a photo op. You're just doing this. You're just doing that. Obviously, when we talk about the Bible, it's about living it out.

It's about having courage to live it out. And frankly, bring your Bible to school day is a classic example of that. It's like, do you have the courage to tell people, I believe this is God's word, or I am a Christian. And I believe what it says in here, even though you may disagree with much of what I believe, but I believe. So in other words,

it's an act of courage to bring your Bible to school. So that itself, to me, is a way of living out your faith, being public about your faith. There's so many Christians that they hide their faith or they just want to accommodate themselves to the people around them. And, you know, I understand that there's a time to do that, but there's a time to speak out. I think we should declare this coming Sunday, bring a letter to the American Church to Church Day. To church. That's right. This Sunday. That's right. We're going to partner with some large parochurcher organization, and we're going to make that happen. No, it's interesting because we really do, when you look at the church history, right, and you don't think that the people, you know, before Martin Luther and the

Reformation, that they thought, hey, we're really corrupt and wicked. You know, everybody's kind of going along the safe path. And sometimes it's ugly. And I think the evangelical church in America today, there's a lot of that where people are saying, well, we don't want to talk about that issue, or we're not going to talk about that issue, or everybody on our, who works for us has to get the vaccine. We just want to, we just want to follow the law, Romans 13. And we have an opportunity to live heroically and to live out our faith. So I was going to title the book, Faith Without Works is dead because I'm just convinced that we have really erred on the side of we talk about faith, faith, I believe, I believe. It's like, well, nobody cares what you say you believe. People care.

Do you live it out? And bringing your Bible to school is a way to live out your faith. But probably by the time this airs around the country, school's over today. So forget it. Well, night school. Bring it tomorrow. Yeah, night school. Okay, so we got bored currently coming up. I want to say, too, there's a great film at Salem now.com. Salem now.com. You can find the film No Vacancy, starring Dean Kane and Sean Young. We should get Sean Young on this program. She was in Blade Runner. She was in a lot of great films, No Way Out.

Dean Kane, of course, Superman, no vacancy. You can find that sale now. I had coffee with Sean Young the other day, and I said, would you come on the Eric Metaxos show? And she said, who? You know, that's such a pity. It's such a pity that you tried that lame joke and that we're not going to edit it out. Okay, that's it. All right, so Dean Cain-Chang-Young, no vacancy at SalemNow.com.

We also want to say Socrates and the City event, oh my gosh, next week in Houston. Yes. If you haven't signed up, folks, hurry up, because, like, I want that place full. I want that. This is going to be James Tour is, there's nobody in the world like James Tour. And the fact that I get to talk to him at Socrates and City in October. This is October 12, so it's next week in Houston. If you know anybody in the Houston area, you've got to let them know.

And then, of course, November 1st, back in New York City, we have David Berlinski, who is, oh, my gosh, you'll see. Okay. And before we go to Ward Connerly, we had some audio issues with him, but we fixed them, so we'll get through it. But we're doing a fundraiser for the Alliance defending freedom. And I want to say again and again and again, living out your faith, the devil doesn't care what you say you believe. God doesn't care what you say you believe. If you live out your faith, that proves what you believe. And so we all are in a battle.

And if you want to pretend you're not, well, you are pretending and you're helping. the other side. We've got to live out our faith. And so that's one of the reasons I say, give to those organizations that are on the front lines that are really living out heroically what we believe in. They're doing, they're fighting the battle. So nobody's better than the Alliance Offending Freedom. If you go to our website, Metaxis Talk.com, we're asking you to go to Metaxistock.com. We're asking you to click on the banner and to give generously to the Alliance Defending Freedom this month. We're doing a fundraiser with them. this is important. How I wish it were not. How I wish it were not.

Folks, there are people in America that give tons of money to evil organizations, to organizations working against religious liberty. They think they're doing good. Well, Alliance Offending Freedom, they go to the Supreme Court, they fight religious liberty battles, they fight battles for general American liberty. They're fighting for us. They don't get paid, right? Like they're not making money off of this. They're doing this because they believe it's right. So we need to support them.

Albin and I will send signed books to three grand prize winners. So whatever you give, when you go to Metaxistalk.com and you click on the banner, whatever amount you give, it's the same thing. We will put the names in a hat. We'll pick out three grand prize winners. And three of you will win so many books and hats and T-shirts that you'll be sick of it. You'll just be sick. You'll have to get a dumpster, and you're just going to have to throw out.

You just don't want this much stuff in your house. That's how much stuff we're going to send you. So you have to go to metaxistalk.com. And I always throw this out there. If somebody during the course of this campaign, which is to say this month, can give a $10,000 tax deductible gift to the Alliance Defending Freedom, I want to have dinner with you. I want to spend the evening with you just as a way of saying thank you. If there's somebody out there that wants to give.

give that gift. It will be my joy to spend the evening with you. But you have to go to metaxis talk.com. In case you haven't been paying attention, the Biden administration has caused a financial crisis and they have no clue how to fix it. Oil prices have skyrocketed. And when oil prices go up, the cost of transportation and shipping spikes leading the prices of goods to rise. And when we're already seeing record inflation, that's the last thing we need. Our economy is in trouble and you need to take steps to protect. yourself. If all your money is tied up in stocks, bonds, and traditional markets, you are vulnerable. Gold is one of the best ways to protect your retirement. No matter what happens, you own your gold.

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Ice cream castles in the air. It is my great privilege right now to have as my guest, someone I think of as an American hero and a living legend, if I can say that. His name is Ward Connerly. Some of you know him and his wife. work. Where do I begin? Recently, well, actually, I should say no, during the early 90s, my guest, Ward Connerly, he was then president of the California Civil Rights Initiative campaign. He was the leading African American supporting Proposition 209, which is a ballot initiative

that outlawed affirmative action in California in 1996. He successfully eliminated race-based affirmative action in nine states. He's a recipient of the Ronald Reagan Award for Leadership from the California Republican Party. He's written a number of books. And by the grace of God, he is my guest right now. Ward Connerley, welcome to the program. Thank you for having me on your show. I've been looking forward to this. Well, so have I. It's taken us way too long. You are someone that, you know, your name has been out there for a long time as one of these heroes out there, an African-American who is fighting against affirmative action and stuff.

So I really always want to know people's story. Where did you, where does your story begin? I don't know how old you are now, but you've been around for some time and you've been busy for most of that time. Eric, I think the best way to answer your story, question is to mention that I was born in Louisiana in 1939, and there was a sea on my birth certificate. It wasn't for child or Connerley. It was for colored. And that sea was supposed to have marked my path for my life in this great country. And throughout my life, I've had to give meaning to that sea.

And the meaning was, I'm an equal person. I'm entitled to the same rights as everybody else, no more, no less. And I have an opportunity to do something with my life. My life isn't what was given to me at birth. It's what I make of it. And so I have brought to the platform of life the belief that equal really means equal. It's not a special privilege. It's not something that I should get compensation for or reparations for, but it's an equal chance to compete.

And so I have resisted discrimination all my life. I have resisted preference all my life. All of my consciousness has been devoted to giving meaning to that term of equal. Well, it's fascinating because, you know, a lot of people who are black Americans don't see it the way you do. You've been an outlier. You've been a very brave voice over the years. So I'm kind of curious how you came to that. In other words, what is your story?

You said you're born in 1939 into the deep south, Louisiana. What is your story? How were you raised? and what led you to the views you hold today and have held for so long? I was raised by a committee of three. My maternal grandmother, Aunt Bert, who was a sister to my mother, and Uncle James, her husband, and they made sure that I accepted responsibility for my life. There were boundaries.

There was love, a lot of love, but there were boundaries. I knew what I could do, what I couldn't do. I had to work hard in school. I had to do everything possible to, quote, make something of my life. And so that gave me a sense of responsibility, but also a sense of empowerment that got to think that from about 11 years old. when did this new narrative come into the culture i'm guessing it's in the 60s because many of the civil rights icons we're not on board with the idea of affirmative action or what we look at now it's almost like a grievance view of the world victimhood uh were you at any point

in that direction. What did you do? Did you go to college? What's your story after you, as you were growing up? I went to a community college. I had about an A minus average, so I could have, I didn't have transportation. I didn't have tuition, money for tuition. I had to borrow $35 to buy my first set of books.

So I had to hustle a ride to go to. to a community college. There were four black kids in the neighborhood. All of them wanted to make something of ourselves, and we carpooled. But your question was, what did this all change? I think it changed later than the 60s, primarily because the country wanted to make good

on the promise of equality. We wanted to give black people a fair chance, but we went a little bit further than that. And we wanted to make up for what had been done. Problem is, once you start making up, you never know when to stop. So you've come out against reparations, against affirmative action. At what point? And when you were in college, you said you were in college in the 50s,

what did you think you wanted to do with your life at that point? I wasn't sure. I told my first real professor that I wanted to be an accountant. And she said, an accountant, why would you want to be an accountant? And I said, I don't know. And she said, he who knows not, and knows not that he knows not. And I began to start thinking about what is it I want to do? and I started doing more in the field of writing, and I was attracted to political theory.

But Eric, I didn't know. I just sort of went along with the flow and let life take me where it would. So you started writing, but how does one make a living as a writer? I'm speaking as someone who has struggled to make a living as a writer. Are we talking about the 1960s when you began to? doing most of your writing? I think it was the late 60s, but I wasn't trying to make

a living as a writer. I was trying to get an A on my exams. You're trying to get an A on your exams. Well, that's what you're still in college, but I'm saying, but at that point you begin to feel yourself moving into the world of way beyond accounting, but into the world of

ideas, into the world of writing, but you still weren't really sure where this is going to carry you. Right, right. I wasn't sure, but I knew that I wanted to make something of myself, that I wanted to do something that would be useful, because my family of my committee of three had made sure that I understood what they wanted, what they expected of me. Also, the church was very important and getting a sense of what it means to be a good person. If I were to, uh, if I were to, uh, um, if I were to, uh, have to answer the question of what influenced me.

I would say the family and the church. Those two institutions gave me a sense of empowerment, a sense that I should never get too big for my britches, that I should remain tethered to moral principles, not given to me in highfalutin words, but in common words of being fair to people, do unto others as you would have them do unto you, that sort of teaching.

What is the first book that you wrote, and when did you write that? The first book I wrote was Creating Equal, and I wrote that in 19, 98, I believe it was. Second book was Lessons from my Uncle James. And I know you're working on a third book. Right. It's Ward's Words, and it's about the principle of equality. You know, I don't think that we really understand the founding at all as people.

We hear about we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. but our reality is we're losing the feed we're going to a break when we come back we continue a conversation with Ward Connerley folks do not miss this tell me Eric why is relief factor so successful at lowering

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may be why so many people find such wonderful relief. So if you've got back pain, shoulder, neck, hip, knee, or foot pain from exercise or just getting older, you should order the three-week quick start discounted to only 1995 to see if it will work for you. It works for me. It has for about 70% of the half a million people who've tried it and have ordered more. Go to Relieffactor.com or call 800 for relief to find out about this offer. Feel the difference. Folks, I have the privilege of speaking with Ward Connerly, born in 1939, still going strong. He wrote his first book, Creating Equal, in 1998. And I was just asking you, Ward, as we went into the break, you were going to talk about the founding, and I want to, I want you to talk about that.

But what were you doing between graduation from college and up until the point that you wrote this first book? What did you get involved in? My first job was to work for the Sacramento Redevelopment Agency, acquiring blighted properties, recycling them into better use, the highest and best use. I did that for about three years. I then went on to work for the California legislature. I worked at the Department of State Department of Housing and Community Development. All of this was on the governmental trail, because at that time, I wasn't really sure that I could find my way in the private sector. Coming out of Jim Crow, you really felt that the only ones that you could get an equal chance to demonstrate what you were capable of doing was government.

And you look for those words, we are an equal opportunity employer, which I did. I looked for that and was hired by the redevelopment agency. Okay, so let's be blunt. You lived in a world where racism was a very real thing. I don't want to sugarcoat that. You lived that. You're old enough to have really seen that, which has given you some perspective,

and it gives you the authority to speak now in a way that younger people would not have that kind of authority. But so you worked in California. you got involved in government. Did you see yourself as an activist? What were your political views during those years? And I assume this is the 70s. You cut to the chase.

No, I did not see myself as an activist. I had never once marched in defense of civil rights or anything else for that matter, although I had come out against housing discrimination as president of the student body at Sacramento State College. But I was not an activist. I was a guy trying to develop a business after I left the legislature as a consultant. My desire was to be a successful entrepreneur. and it was there that I felt that I had done everything that I could and needed to do to be a successful entrepreneur. And I got active and I had a successful business, had some money that I could use for making the business more recognizable.

I became a friend of Governor Pete Wilson, and I say governor, but at the time he was a legislator, went on to become a United States Senator and then a governor of California. He asked me to serve on the Board of Regents in 1993, and I just, one thing led to another, and I saw that the University of California was really discriminating against. people of Asian. Say that again because the feed cut. You said that you saw in the 90s that the Californian, the colleges in California were, in fact, discriminating against Asians.

Yeah, you know, they would see the bottom of almost every document. We do not discriminate because of race, color, sexual orientation, disability. But of course you're saying that you saw that they did. And we know we discriminated. You saw that they did. Yeah, yeah.

We had a matrix called the Caramel Matrix. And that assigned points to people at admission on the basis of their race. I'm just, it's so fascinating because we all know this dark stuff goes on behind the scenes. There's just corruption.

and this stuff. But you were there in California. You were a region of the University of California system from 1993 till 2005. And in the middle of that, you saw what was going on and you successfully worked, or I should say, you worked successfully to eliminate race-based affirmative action actually in nine states.

So you saw how pernicious affirmative action can be, as a black man you were fighting against this. I imagine that you made some enemies. I've made quite a few enemies. But in the fullness of time, I think that more people are realizing that I was right. Without the principle of equality, I never would have been free to do what I'm doing. I just wouldn't have. I would have been trapped in that mindset that I can't succeed.

Those damn white racists are going to hold me back. But it was the ideal of equality. It was the words in that declaration about we hold these truths to be self-evident. That was my inspiration. It was my aspiration. I know we're going to go to a break right now. We're going to come right back. I'm talking to Ward Connerly.

He's working. on a new book called Ward's Words. I want to talk about that. But just a privilege to have this conversation, folks, we'll be right back. With the overturn of Roe v. Wade, lots of companies are coming out saying they'll pay for employee abortion travel and expenses. Most of you've heard about some of these companies. You've decided to stop shopping or doing business there, but did you know that you most likely own stock in those companies through your 401K? IRAs, and other investment accounts.

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order now. Call 1-800-978-3057 now and use the promo code Eric, or you can go to mypillow.com. Click on the radio listener square and use the promo code Eric. This offer will not last very long. They're known to sell quickly. So order now with promo code Eric at mypillow.com. Promocode Eric at my pillow.com. Hey there, folks. Welcome back. I'm talking to Ward Connerly, the author of two books, and he is authoring a third book, or is it almost out, the new book? No, I'm about 60 days away. 60 days? Consider it done. Yes. That's close enough 60 days away.

But it's going to be called Ward's Words. And what is this since you're 60 days away? You're pretty close. What is this last book about, this new book? I want to discuss race where I think we've gone wrong. How do we get back on track? Recently, Vice President Harris, for example, said that, I think it was last Saturday, said that with respect to Hurricane Ian, the administration would be looking at equity.

And she mentioned low-income people and people of color. And she suggested that those were the two groups that would receive priority. The following day, FEMA went on meet the press, face the nation, and said, no, we'll give assistance to everyone. But she gave us a sneak peek into the thinking of those who propose equity. You know, we think of equity as what we have in our home, the value less the mortgage. And so we've been stumbling around trying to figure out what do they mean by equity. Now we know. It's about giving reparations.

It's about helping those who see themselves as victims. It's about people of color, as she says, a term that I don't like. I actually see myself as a victim of the Biden administration. Maybe I can get some equity out of that. It's kind of astonishing, really. When you hear people say things like this, I never thought well. or much of Kamala Harris. But to have people say these things nakedly, openly, it's absolutely astonishing.

You think we've drifted into some Marxist third world state. It's almost incomprehensible to me that we could be at this point in 2022. But you've been fighting this, as we've been saying, for decades. You have a different view. The problem that I've encountered is the silence of whites whose voices have been chilled because of the claim of white supremacy. Whites don't speak up. People of Asian descent typically are more subtle. They're quieter.

It's part of their culture to hang back. and so it's left to some individual Uncle Tom's to venture out into the wilderness here and to fight back. But, you know, we've got to fight back on this stuff because there are those who are trying to, quote, transform America. And they want an entirely different system than we have right now. and I've never seen anything like it. At all my life, the darkest days of Jim Crow were not as bad as this. It sounds odd to say that. But at least during Jim Crow, we knew that morally we were in the right.

We knew that this was going to change. But now, man, I just can't believe some of the thing that's happening. What is a woman? It's kind of funny. You know, it's the famous question asked by Sojourner Truth. You know, aren't I a woman? And today people would say, I don't know, are you? It's these things that we all took for granted.

The basics have been thrown into the blender. And it's very confusing. I'm one of the few white people I know who openly denounces Black Lives Matter, the organization, critical race theory. Why? because I care about black communities in America. It is because I care that I say these things are evil, these things aren't going to harm people.

If I thought they would actually help, I would keep my mouth shut. But I know that these things are going to harm black people in the country and harm everyone in the country. But you really have been speaking out against these things for so many years. Do you now live in California? You said you started life in Louisiana, and you'd been in California for much of your life? I live in California now, Rio Linde,

and it's a conservative area, rural area. I went to Idaho for two years, Cortillane, moved back to California because this is where the action is. If I want to make a difference in my life to get rid of this pernicious, to use your words, paradigm. It's here in California. Well, I'm glad that you're working on this new book

and that you seem close to the end. We'd love to have you back when that book does come out. Ward's words, of course, you are Ward, Ward Connerally. And can you tell my audience in the time we have remaining when you wrote your book Creating Equal, What do you mean by that title? And why did you decide fairly late in life to write this book? Well, I did not want to get involved in political activities.

I was trying to make something of myself. I was trying to make sure my family had a good foundation, that I was respected as a person. That meant having a successful business. I went on the board of regents as an appointee. Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country. I live by my ideals.

And with that in mind, I try to do the best damn job I could as a regent. And it all began for me, Eric, when I saw that the University of California, a tremendous institution was discriminating against people. applying different standards and lying about it and lying under the cover of morality. We want to build diversity. Gee, that's a good thing, isn't it? But I realize that it wasn't a good thing. Well, we're going to go to a break. We'll have a final segment coming up with Ward Connerly.

Spelled, C-O-N-N-E-R-L-Y. We'll be right back. and he held it tight. He stopped once to wipe the sweat away. I said, you mighty little boy to be a working that way. He said, I like it with a big white grin, kept on the popping, and he said again, get rhythm. When you get the blues, come on, get rhythm. Folks, I'm talking to Ward Connerly.

The hero and the legend who got affirmative action outlawed in California in 1996, because he He believes it's immoral. He is now working to oppose reparations for black Californians. And, of course, he is a black Californian. So where are things with that battle right now? Well, I'm really going to catch it from my fellow black people because I think reparations is a bad idea. First of all, where do you stop? Who are you going to give reparations to?

And if you really want to get beyond race, as I do, reparations giving monthly checks to black people and special benefits is going to prolong the agony of race in California. How do you decide who's going to get it? What about a person who picks up their home and their life and moves into California? California was a free state. California wasn't a slave state. And so what about people who come in from outside California who are black in this society? And I'm hearing the figure of $250,000. Multiply that by an under getting big money.

Well, let me ask you, because it's not think that's the right way. It strikes me as this is naked politics. This is as political as it gets. It's a joke. If your mother is white and your father is black, do you get half the amount of money? I mean, how in the world can anyone be serious about this? It becomes preposterous. You think of somebody like Kamala Harris, who I don't even know how we define black anymore.

I mean, she's half Indian. She's married to a white man. And it just becomes so silly when you try to think in these racial categories, it breaks down pretty quickly. But the people who are pushing this stuff, they don't care. They know that they're making political hay out of it, that they're trying to bribe people into voting for them. The people who are pushing it in California are middle-class people from the affirmative action generation who don't want to see it go. The new justice on the Supreme Court is a progressive. She says the 14th Amendment was for black people.

I thought that once you write something into the Constitution, it's for everybody. It's not just for black people, but we're living in a very weird time. And if we don't fight back on it, this country is not going to be the same because there are Asian people who are tired of it. They're tired of being kicked around and marginalized. Sooner or later, I think whites are going to have the same reaction. Sometimes when people say we're losing our country, we don't take them seriously. We think, oh, that's just more hyperbole. Well, it's absolutely extraordinary.

Is there a website where people can find you? They can go to the American Civil Rights Institute. A-C-R-I-O-R-I-D-O-R-I-D-R-E-A-R-I-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E. A-C-R-E-R-E-R-E. Folks, I have been talking to Ward Connerly, W-A-R-D-R-D- Connerly, C-O-N-N-E-R-L-Y, and you can find him at A-C-R-R-R-R-G. Ward, Connerly, a privilege, and we'll have you back as soon as possible. Well, thank you, sir.